The Simon Templar Foundation

"The Simon Templar Foundation" is the first of three novellas written by Leslie Charteris and included in the twelfth Saint book The Misfortunes of Mr. Teal published in 1934. It had previously been published in the magazine Thriller as "The Book of Fate."

Plot
The Saint finds himself in possession of a black book (a legacy from his one-time enemy, Rayt Marius —see Knight Templar). The book contains secrets related to war profiteering by several prominent Englishmen; Templar plans to create a one-million-pound foundation to aid the victims of war by blackmailing the men featured in Marius' book. This story introduces Hoppy Uniatz, a small-time American hoodlum who becomes a long-serving ally of The Saint over the coming decades. This story takes place an unspecified time after the previous Saint books Once More the Saint and The Brighter Buccaneer; Templar is said to be 32 years old (thereby placing this story some three years after Knight Templar) and he has apparently been away from Britain for quite some time, during which he had a series of unchronicled adventures until his travels were cut short by his receipt of the black book.